Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-05-11

supporting fluid. There may be some
occasion for all this warning, and yet
we feel inclined to take our chances
and keep on drinking milk even when
no opportunity is offered to have a
chemical analysis made of each sep
arate draught., It may be a deadly
drink, but after all it is safer than
some whisky.
ARITHMETIC OF CORN PLANTING.
A.. c. Gliddon. of Michigan, gives in
the New York Tribune his plan of lay
ing out his corn rows so thatthey divided
an acre into fractionr that made calcu-
lation easy. In the level farms of the
West, and ~especsilly those which still
have the rectangular boundaries fixed
by Government surveys, being regular
parts of quarter sections with the ideal
field forty rods by eighty, the plan is
very neat and handy. We quote.
Now 8 feet eight inches apart for the
rows gives exactly IS lows to the acre
across the ideal field from side to side,
and 9 rows to the acre the long way of
the field. In the decentralization of
the crop, the modern two-horse cultiva-
tors will work to the centre of the row,
while at 4 feet, or wider, there will al
ways be a strip in the centre that the
cultivator teeth will not disturb. If the
corn be cut up at 6 hills square each
ac1e will have just 40 shocks; by husk-
ing 4 shocks in different parts of the
field the product will be .one-tenth the
yield of an acre. Thus accuracy a
be determined, which to the thinking
farmer is worth something. The value
of this distance is perceived after the
crop is gathered in, and when the field
is to be plowed again Every plowman
knows how difficult it is to turn corn
stubble under we'll, unless the last fur
row before turning the hill covers up
close to the outside of it. Rows four
feet apart require three si%xteen-inch
burrows to compass the space. This is
too wide for ordinary plows; four inches
less space permits the three burrows to
turn the soil completely. The above
practice on my own farm for several
years is so satisfactory that I know it
will be adopted by others after a years
trial. The distance named gives 518
hills to the acre more than at four feet,
and rquires less seed to the hill.
oUAcK GRASS.
Good farmers dread quack grass as
one of the enemies they find it hardest
to eradicate. But there is another class
to whom l have sometimes thought it
was a blessing by its effects in prevent
ing the utter destruction of all fertility i n
their soil. Under poor cultivation it
maintains a perennial sod, and the luck
less farmer, finding that his crops do
not pay willingly resigns himself to the
inevitable and concludes to keep most
of his land in grass, The solemnity
with which he will announce this deter
mination at the village grocery, as if it
were his choice and was not imposed
by stern necessity, will commonly cause
a quiet smile among those who under
stand the facts in the case. To such
farmers an unprejudiced observer must
concede that quack grass, however
loudly they protest against it, is a posi-
tive advantage. In fact. this and other
like pests may be given to ~slovenly
farmers on the principle that Moses is
said to have allowed divorce among the
ancient Israelites-on account ct the
hardness Of their hearts.-Monroe coun-
ty, N. Y.
WHY AND HOW CREAM RISES.
The secret of raising cream consists
in suddenly coolingthe milk. In round
numbers milk is 81 per cent water, 4
per cent sugarand the same quantity Of
butter fats. The fat is the part which
we wish to seperate from the milk.
Milk is a little heavier than water, pro-
badly onaccount Of the sugar it contains.
It also heats and cools much slower
than water, hence it is what III scienti-
fc friends call a ..bad conductor"
If milk, which is composed so largely
of water, heats and cools more slowly
than water, it can only be accounted
for by the fact that the IS per cent
which contains the butter fat holds heat
or keeps from cooling longer than the
81 per cent Of water. To prove that
water is a better conductorof heat than
milk, put one hand into q pail Of water
at a temperature of 50 . and hold the
other in a pail Of milk of the same tenn
perature. You will find that the hand
in the water will feel the sensation Of
cold before the one in the milk.
Take acan OF milk 81 inches in Diane.